That something else ended up being horseback riding in the Cambodian countryside. I’d wanted to do a microlight flight over the Angkor temple region too but the guy running it said the runway was too saturated with water for the landings to be safe. I’d have to hope I had better luck with that another day.

I’d only really rode a horse once before, and that was very briefly, so I wasn’t sure how I’d do. I felt a little better though that I was in good hands when I got to the ranch. Even though I’m in such a deprived country, the ranch was beautiful and it was clear that all the horses there were very well cared for. It was a little strange being up there when I first climbed on to LA, my horse. Just like it was with the elephant though, I got used to it pretty quickly; I was going at a steady canter before long. One problem I realised I’d have early on was that the heat wasn’t just a bit much for me, it seemed to be affecting LA a fair bit too. He didn’t want to run at any sort of speed for very long and the couple of times I tried getting him to he almost threw me off! It was a good thing for both of us then that the areas we were riding through were so flooded. The water sloshing up provided some much needed relief from the heat (I’m going to pretend that I don’t know what was probably in that water).

When we started the 3 hour ride the dirt road we were on was really dry, there was plenty of water by the sides (we had some fantastic views of rice paddies and flooded farm land) but the path itself was high enough to avoid the water. We weren’t even at a trot yet with the horses so even if there had been water it wouldn’t have affected us much. Before long though, my guide, Yen, had us turn onto a narrow dirt road with small, make-shift looking, but almost certainly permanent, houses on either side. I’m guessing these people worked on the flooded fields we saw earlier. Their road had large sections that were flooded too. It was fun walking and trotting through it on horseback. I had a pretty good view from up there and the kids that lived in the houses were so happy to see us go by :) It was my first experience going through water on horseback too. On this flooded dirt road, Yen lead the way on his horse. With every step he took the horse was disturbing the dirt under the water. As he moved forward he left a trail of gradually expanding, circular mud blooms in place of each step. It looked really cool. The water wasn’t very deep (yet) but it came a fair way up LA’s legs. Going through was a bit of a struggle and I definitely was not confident enough to try and ride through at speed. There were loads of water buffalo and cattle just chilling there too. The road was really long so I could see them quite a far way off. Some of them were just laying down right in the middle of the road, as they were visible from so far away, I noticed that they weren’t moving for anyone, not even the couple of motorbikes that were passing through. Everyone had to go around them and get more wet than they otherwise would have. I was thinking it might be a problem since there wasn’t enough room for us on either of the sides of the road, Yen just calmly continued towards them without saying anything. When we got there I realised why, those buffalo couldn’t get out of the way quick enough. We didn’t even have to do anything. I guess they’re scared of horses. The same thing happened any other time we came across cattle (which on this long road, was quite a lot). Not all of these dirt roads we were on were flooded and none of them were without at least some dry sections but with the next one we turned on to, there were some sections that must have had almost 2 feet of water on them. It was cool passing through but it occurred to me that this water must have ruined a lot of people’s day when it first showed up.

We were on an actual road next. You’d think it would be nice with the lack of obstructions and flood water but the lack of something else made it more unpleasant than what we’d been riding through before. There were way less trees here than on the narrow back roads we’d just been on. We felt the full force of the mid-day sun and it was not pleasant. It was less visually interesting too because the thick vegetation and trees along the earlier dirt roads created a cool looking play of light and shadow, the way the leaves were breaking the sunlight was both refreshing and it made everything look better. LA didn’t even want to trot on that tarmac road so we went pretty slowly for most of it. Since it was such a long road too I wouldn’t be surprised if my skin got a full shade darker just while I was on this stretch of the ride. All the roads were pretty wide and open now, there were almost no trees on them, even the dirt road we were on next. LA got a second wind though so we managed to trot for almost all of it. As that road was finishing we came to a few flooded fields but I couldn’t see any roads leading in other directions. Where were we going to go? Through the flooded fields, that’s where! The water here was ridiculous, it came all the way up to LA’s belly and for sections of these fields, the water level was about a third of the way up my shins. It was pretty extreme but it felt weird too. Because of the baking heat, the water was all nice and warm, if it wasn’t for the myriad nasties swimming around in it, it might have been quite a relaxing experience. Riding that horse through such deep water will definitely be one of the things that I remember for a long time.